Food safety department collects Rs 2.18 crore fine from violators

NOIDA: The district food safety department has collected a total of Rs 2.18 crore as fines from different manufactures of food and beverage products for selling adulterated items to consumers in 2015. The department also fined Rs 3.25 lakh to the manufacturer and seller of a smokeless tobacco product in Sector 58. S N Singh, district food safety officer, said that the officials had collected a tobacco product from Rinku Store. "The lab tests revealed harmful elements in the tobacco products which is violation of the food safety rule. The manufacturer of the product was fined Rs 3 lakh while the seller has been asked to pay Rs 25 thousand," he said. In the last financial year the department conducted checking at different stalls, manufacturing outlets, hotels and restaurants and took 369 samples of suspicious food items for lab test. "We sent these samples for checking in a government lab in Lucknow. The lab report revealed that 156 products had failed in quality tests. We filed cases against the manufacturers and sellers of these products. The court ordered the violators to pay fine for selling adulterated food items," Singh said.